Is everyone crazy?

[Marian]

Because it really seems like it sometimes and this is something that's bothered me about the game for awhile.

I feel like I'm some kind of bizarre aberration in that I enjoy playing normal, well adjusted human beings who just want to get a job or start a business or help their town. But what I mostly see around me, if there's any effort made to roleplay at all, are people playing disabled characters, sociopaths, murderers, sex freaks, amnesiacs, fascist guards, people on the verge of mental collapse, religious fanatics, drama whores, or any of a thousand and one other 'gimmick' roles.

I'm sure it must be possible to play a character in some of those ways without having it define the character, and probably most of the people who are into the game enough to post on the forums have already figured out how, but most of what I'm seeing in game just comes off as 'okay everyone stop what you're doing and LOOK AT ME!! oh no someone was mean to me I'm going to run out in the road and threaten to starve myself till I get my way LOOK AT ME!!!' (holy crap that last one is maddening, that was the one thing I was happy to get away from when I lost my old account and now new character, new town, and it's happening again ARGH).

The constant possibility of sleepiness or heart attacks makes it hard enough to rely on other characters as it is...add in the fact that the person you work for, or the person who worked for you for over five years is likely to go completely insane at the drop of a hat (assuming they haven't been hiding some elaborate plan to murder you behind their *smile* all along), and it really becomes impossible to trust anybody or get anything done.

/endrant

[Sunni Daez]

Drama, Drama everywhere and played to the extreme.. of course! I do hear what you are saying, but sometimes Drama is the only thing that wakes up the sleepers.. some thrive on it.. others thrive to create it.. from one extreme to the other. No middle ground.

[Misato]

Drama whore, sex freak, sociopath, on the verge of mental collapse, LOOK AT ME....

I think you're talking about my brother. >.> It's a little hard to be bothered by it IG when I deal with it every day IRL. T.T

[Black Canyon]

Haha!....
I've noticed that there is an abundance of drama in some locations.... but not in most for my characters. I really don't mind a great deal, as it's a game and part of that may mean players experimenting a bit and pushing the envelop a little. However I do wonder if the "top 100" list might encourage some to get a bit over the top just to get noticed, instead of realizing that it is the stable consistent characters that develop over time that really represent the best of roleplay in this game.... in my opinion.

[Sunni Daez]

I don't mind drama.. I just get frustrated when people take off down a road.. it really trashes RP, more so when they time the leave to the travel tick.. you try to follow, they are gone.. Grrr... Drama is fine.. but excessive , oh pity me.. everybody is against me drama is so.. typical and I am finding it harder and harder to get mine interested in those types.

[Mitch79]

The absolute stupity in one certain place tonight has made me cull my character down another character. Good luck to those of you in the place sticking around, I can't stand anymore of the craziness that is just so far off the wall. I get sick of it myself.

[Mr. Bones]

Not everybody wants to get a job or start a business, not everybody goes by the rules of society or wants to be quiet. If everybody did things that way we wouldn't have any prisons, people wouldn't be out of work (willingly that is), youtube would be useless and we would have never heard of Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dhamer. It doesn't bother me that people play wicked characters or blind, dumb, deaf whatever; we need diversity in the game. I am only bothered by people who play nothing but goody goody characters or evil murderers. In my opinion everybody should have a little of each on their account, it takes different types of characters to keep the game interesting.

If everybody is one dimensional on their accounts you end up with either Farmville or Call of Duty.

[Marian]

Not everybody wants to get a job or start a business, not everybody goes by the rules of society or wants to be quiet. If everybody did things that way we wouldn't have any prisons, people wouldn't be out of work (willingly that is), youtube would be useless and we would have never heard of Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dhamer. It doesn't bother me that people play wicked characters or blind, dumb, deaf whatever; we need diversity in the game. I am only bothered by people who play nothing but goody goody characters or evil murderers. In my opinion everybody should have a little of each on their account, it takes different types of characters to keep the game interesting.

If everybody is one dimensional on their accounts you end up with either Farmville or Call of Duty.

I never said everybody needed to play the same kind of character, my point was that it really does seem well-played 'normal' characters are unique and straight up abnormal just because they're so rare. You can't call the opposite extreme 'diversity' when everyone's doing it.

I have two characters of my own that are a little...off, and a third with a reading disability, but I try not to dominate the event page just because. (At least I try not to make their personal problems dominate the event page, I can't help it if I'm too wordy otherwise ) I keep it subtle and try to have them react to situations as realistically as possible. Whether any of their issues ever become somebody else's issues really depends on the actions of the characters around them, I'm not going to keep cranking it up to more and more dramatic symptoms until I disrupt the whole town just because I feel like people aren't paying enough attention...if anything they're more likely to keep their weirdness to themselves and just go about their lives as a semi-productive member of society as long as no one singles them out or puts them on the spot about it.

Hell, I work with people with developmental disabilities, a lot of them can hold jobs and have relationships just like anyone else, without bringing everything everyone else around them is trying to accomplish to a screeching halt with self centered drama drama drama every other day.

[Black Canyon]

The thing that makes this game great is the fact that each character is played by a real person... no NPCs..... a real person behind each character who has their own idea of what's appropriate behavior for their character in a particular situation.

Your idea of appropriate might be a lot different from my thoughts about it... and that's okay. My character will react to your character's craziness or dullness or awesomeness in their own particular way, as determined by me. So I try to refrain from judging others' playstyle as I know this wouldn't be a game I'd want to play if it were only full of carbon copies of my characters

[SumBum]

I know I've said it before and probably more eloquently elsewhere.... It's hard to do subtle in Cantr without feeling like no one is noticing. I think any aspect of a char's personality that a player wants others to notice/realize gets exaggerated somewhat even if it's not intentional. On the other end of the spectrum, I've seen chars get all huffy when they're overlooked because they just quietly go about their lives (one in particular I recall was annoyed that no one fell in love with them but I'd never seen the char do anything but move from one project to another).

It truly is a challenge to walk that fine line between too subtle and too attention whorey. You want your chars to have personalities and want others to be aware of those personalities. I've one char who has quirks and does not want attention. I have a hard time even showing hints of its personality because other chars are hyper-aware and point things out no matter how subtle I try to be.

Some of the blame falls on other players/chars in the area. If you're fed up with the spotlight seeking ones then don't encourage them. Eventually they will get bored of no one fawning over them and move on. I find the ones who repeatedly cater to the drama queens far more irritating than the drama queens.

[Bmot]

I've one char who has quirks and does not want attention. I have a hard time even showing hints of its personality because other chars are hyper-aware and point things out no matter how subtle I try to be.

Some of the blame falls on other players/chars in the area. If you're fed up with the spotlight seeking ones then don't encourage them. Eventually they will get bored of no one fawning over them and move on. I find the ones who repeatedly cater to the drama queens far more irritating than the drama queens.

THAT! I find it's, for a big part, the fact that, quite often, people react to roleplay too sensibly... (I don't know if that's really what I'm trying to say, so, here's an example ) When some char decides to RP hiding from someone, say, behind a tree... How often does the char he's hiding from see him, in comparison to RL? I think, a -lot-. That's a bit the same, I guess, as overly reacting to someone spinning his eyes because of some quirk... It's often a bit... You get ignored, or you get a massive attention to the little quirk your char has...

I guess that's what I was trying to say

[Henkie]

I was rather amused when I saw the following after waking up this morning:

Char A says: "...."


And that was it... There was nothing in front of it, no reason for any such things and, obviously didn't cary any meaning. Could have been my sleepy state but I chuckled a bit. I suppose that's a pretty good example of the 'attention-seeker-type' too.

[Addicted]

Morse code?

And what's wrong with being crazy?

people playing disabled characters, sociopaths, murderers, sex freaks, amnesiacs, fascist guards, people on the verge of mental collapse, religious fanatics, drama whores, or any of a thousand and one other 'gimmick' roles.

I've seen all of these done well and sometimes amazingly well. I've also seen it done badly, annoyingly and everything in-between. My pet hate is when you've struggled to build a town and it's destroyed by a badly played drama queen who doesn't work or help build up anything but drives folks away. I get what you mean Marian. The newspawn who spends all 'her' time getting laid or the thief that doesn't talk or steal worthwhile items and clearly wants to be killed get on my nerves too.

However, I find that the drama in most towns I'm in is more serious and has a basis, especially lately. I find myself comfortable having a major drama 'look at me' with some I play when there is a clear reason for it. You may not know the reason but I surely do. I may not be the best roleplayer and often I'm strapped for time and play while making dinner, washing clothes and yelling at the kids so it's hard to assume a character intermittently. I can apologise for it, but hey I doubt I can stop or do better (I'm trying here).

Some drama queens annoy me too, but if they are playing and there is a basis for it, I give them the same tolerance I've been given (lots) (I do ignore certain behaviors and characters). I do get annoyed by certain things but we're all different so I just decided to let most things go, knowing my style annoys others too.

Overall, I love the better drama and put up with the rest in hopes I'll get better and so will others.

PS Sometimes I walk out in fights in real life, it's conflict avoidance - fight or flight - my gut instinct is to leave. Also I know it's a passive aggressive form of manipulation as Henkie will tell me. Best I can do is keep working on it and learn as I grow.

[Henkie]

But we still like you and I'd still give you a tight hug

Furthermore I can pretty much agree with everything, only that I tend to assume the other player has a good reason for the drama, helps me accept it and play along.

[Doug R.]

I can't stand "freak and run" characters either, though I have played a few. Sometimes the thought of staying in a place is just too overwhelming you have to make them hide. But, on the other end of the spectrum, I don't chase after those kinds of characters either. If they want to go, go. The town is probably better off without them. I think it's the characters that constantly feed the attention that encourage the behavior.